Car accident settlement

What is the name of your state? Illinois

I was in a intersection related accident (jan 07) in which the other car jumped red light and hit my car on the side at about 45-50mph. My car was totaled and the other party has accepted liability. I was seen by paramedics and was not taken to the hospital but later that day went to the urgent care and have since been through 3 months of physical therapy and have been seing an orthopedist. The injuries were a contusion in thigh, bruises in knee, concussion, neck and back pain. I have been through few MRIs and luckily don't have any broken bones. The neck and back pain have not completely gone away and I am still on medication. I have missed about 8 days of work also.

The bills are kind of piling up. SOme were paid by my medpay (car insurance) and some by my health insurance all adding upto 15K approx. The other party's insurance is willing to settle but I wanted to see if I should go through a lawyer or handle it myself. The injuries are soft tissue and as per other posts in this newsgroup the settlement may not be big. The issue is if I go with a lawyer and if we settle for somewhere around what my medical bills are, I may end up paying out of pocket (as I would need to pay back the insurance companies and lawyer would take 1/3rd).
What do you guys advice and do you need any more info.

Thanks,

You have a LOT of medical bills. You lose nothing to at least CONSULT with a lawyer and see if one thinks he can help you.

Hi,

I have a followup to my original post above. My back pain came back few months (6/07) after I got done with my first set of physical therapy. In addition, to this I had radicular pain in my arms and legs. The EMG followed by MRI of my cervical spine came out positive with herniated disc. The MRI of lumbar spine came out negative. The doctor advised me to go through physical therapy again. The pain has reduced but is still there a year later and my physical activities are limited (no gym, heavy lifting etc.)

I followed the advice and hired a lawyer and we finally have an offer from the other party. Basically, they are willing to pay just the medical bills for the first treatment and the salary loss (about 8 days). They are NOT willing to cover the second treatment by saying that something else may have a caused the back pain as there is a gap in treatment. Please note I don't have any history of back pain prior to the accident. Also, they are not willing to pay for Pain & suffering at all.

My lawyer thinks this a good offer even though after paying the attorney fees, the insurance companies (medPay & health insurance) the rest barely covers my salary loss and the self pay portion of the medical bills. He is advising me against going through the lawsuit due to the costs involved (doctor fees as a witness etc.).

Please advise what my other options are. I want to get some neutral advise as my attorney advise may be biased (about 7K waiting to go in his pocket).

Thanks,

Your case is weak due to the gap in treatment. You don't mention your age but LOTS of things can cause disc herniation, including non-traumatic things like sleeping funny. So it will be very hard to prove your case. I tend to agree with your lawyer that the costs of litigating when your case is not strong is definitely too high to risk.

You said that you had multiple MRI's in your first round of treatment? Did you have one of your neck and back at that time?

Has your lawyer been able to find out what the other driver's policy limit is?

Age: 37 years

Yes had MRIs for both back and neck right after the accident and both were negative.

I am sure the lawyer requested the policy limits, I can find out. Would it help if the limit is high.

Thanks,

I doubt it. You had negative MRI's after the accident, a 3 month gap in treatment, and MRIs afterwards which were positive. They are not likely to accept fault for anything after treatment ended the first time. At 37, it's definitely possible (even likely, given the circumstances) that something else caused the herniations.